The first of May is a very special day in the Czech calendar. You can be sure that certain things will simply happen on the first May day. The Communists will have a rally, again. The few Neo-Nazis and Anarchists we have will try to beat each other somewhere (although that is sooo 90s). And couples in Prague will kiss each other under the blossoming Cherry or Cherry Blossom trees in the Petrin park.

When Jan was small, he and his father used to visit the old Hamburk pub for Sunday lunches. It was not a beautiful place back then but then again, no pubs looked really that great in the 1980s under Communist rule. But Jan loved the maritime styling of the pub (referring, along with the pub’s name, to the fact that there was a river port with a direct connection to Hamburg nearby), with a big ship’s wheel under the ceiling as the main light in the room. It was a classic neighborhood pub with “regulars” hanging around the bar. A classic local pub of the Karlin district, a district with a “black soul”, the only “bad neighborhood” in town, a blue-collar worker, industrial neighborhood and a place when Jan’s father used to live.

The guests of our Prague food tours often ask us about souvenirs they should get from Prague. We think you have to be smart when it comes to buying souvenirs anywhere: it has to be something relatively small, something that will survive the journey in your luggage unharmed, and something that has a story behind it you can later tell your friends when you show off what you brought home. Botas 66 sneakers (or trainers for those reading this in the UK) meet all these criteria.

If we ever move to the Karlin district like we sometimes plan to, we’ll blame it on Muj salek kavy. The flagship cafe of the local Doubleshot coffee roasters single-handidly put Karlin back on the map and helped it turn into Prague’s Williamsburg that it is today. Why? Because the coffee is consistently good, and the place has a really nice, vibrant vibe. Oh, and are we the only ones who have noticed that their takeaway cups match the sizes of their porcelain cups? That is worth applause by itself. We don't want huge paper cuppa filled to the brink! We just want our regular coffee the way we like it! And yes, we're talking to you, the rest of the Prague coffee scene.

We are not uncovering a secret hidden gem here: Hemingway Bar is arguably the most popular bar in town, and also one of the best ones. Getting in past 9pm when the bar stops taking reservations can take some time, but the wait is worth it: the bar is a great place to drink those woes away with class and distinction. (If you can't get in right away, just sign in. There's lots to do in the area.) It is also a fairly adult place that does focus on mixology. If you're in need of a meat market, look elsewhere. Order something from the cocktail menu, get a sample of their wide selection of rums, or just tell the bartenders what you fancy. And then just watch them work. We could do that for hours.

We love the Dish Fine Burger Bistro, and we visit on the spur of the moment whenever we want to treat ourselves to a great, tasty, juicy burger. You know, the kind of burger that will make you want to cancel your dinner reservations for the month ahead and just come back again and again for seconds and thirds. We never have a reservation so our visits follow the same pattern. We come in, the staff looks at us with that didn’t-we-tell-you-like-the-past-twenty-times-you-should-make-a-reservation-before-you-come kind of face, and then we ģo for a walk around the block because the next table will hopefully be ready in 20 minutes but maybe later, too. Who knows.

If you have been reading this blog for some time, you may know we love coffee and always are in search of the best coffee in Prague. It is also no secret that one of our ultimate favorites is EMA Espresso Bar. It’s reached the level where we have our mail delivered there, and we lovingly call the bench just left of the entry “our second office”. (The other guests of EMA seem to ignore the fact that we like to sit there, and occupy what naturally belongs to us.)

Needless to say, Adam, the manager and barista of EMA Espresso Bar, is one of our favorite baristas in town. We did love his coffee even when he worked at Cafe Lounge before he transferred to EMA. We did also root for him at the Czech Barista Championships earlier this year, although the finals were heartbreaking: we love Ondra, the barista at Alza cafe who finished second, as much as Adam, but hey - he won another category, so the universe can be at peace.

Anyway, Adam is now competing at the World Barista Championships in Seattle and… he’s progressed to the semifinals! Which means he’s one of the twelve best baristas in the World for this year. We’ve made a deal with Adam before he left and he keeps sending us random pics from his journey, although - quite logically - he is very busy over there in Seattle. Please see some of them in the gallery.

We make a point of having a glass of wine on our tours. We have figured you will have the beer anyway. It’s cheaper than tap water in many restaurants here, and it’s so ubiquitous we would not believe you if you said you did not have one in Prague. But wines? No. Czech wine production is tiny and exports are rare, so most foreign visitors do not associate Prague with wine.

Well, we think that’s a mistake and that’s why we are trying hard to change that perception. Luckily, we are not alone. Far from it. There are other people in Prague working hard on the same thing. Take the good people of Veltlin, the wonderful local wine bar in the heart of the Karlin district. Mr Bogdan Trojak and his colleagues have long focused on the “natural” wines of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. (You can see the Empire painted on the wall that dominates the bar.) 

The very same people have decided this year to organize the second installment of Prague Drinks Wine, a festival of natural wines from the former empire in Prague, to be held on 6 and 7 June. The festival tries to follow on the long-forgotten tradition of meetings of Empire winemakers held before WWI. The festival will host about 50 Central European winemakers offering about 400 samples of wine. 

Believe it or not, we used to be students, too. And just like any students, even we had tight budgets. Zuzi, for instance, saved some money by hitchhiking to and from Prague for university. Jan spent ten years doing his masters degree simply because he worked throughout his studies to make some money on the side (oh, and also because he was pretty lazy… and drafted, but that’s another story). But that does not mean we did not care about what we ate. We always liked good food, but simply did not have the money for fine dining.

We know that many visitors who want to eat their way through Prague are on a budget. While we do sometimes visit fine dining venues on our own travels, we think you do not have to compromise on quality even if you have a budget that is slightly tighter. And many times going for the budget option actually brings you the local immersion travelers crave whenever they go. Because we want you to eat well in Prague even if you do not have a gold credit card, we bring you some tips for eating Prague on a budget.